Best Buy Dipping into GameStop’s Profit Pool

June 24, 2009Written by Kyle P.

According to a blog post from Bestbuy’s Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge, several Dallas Bestbuy locations will be testing out the used video game market.A few weeks ago, PlayStation LifeStyle reported on how Walmart was beginning a used-game trade-in program. Bestbuy’s system, is not much different. To trade your game in, you must go to a certified Kiosk, then pop the game in. The Kiosk will systematically scan your game, checking for functionality, and give a coupon voucher, that can be traded in for a gift card.

As Judge puts it :

“It’s a pretty slick system and one of the few trade-in programs to provide instant gratification; you get the gift card on the spot and can redeem it on anything in the store – not just another game.

We’ll also be testing the sale of used games in those stores, and some of the kiosks will even rent games and movies.”

From the looks of it, Gamestop is going to have a lot of competition, and we may (finally) start to see reasonable prices on used games from the dominant gaming retailer.